Selling on Local Bitcoin help

[adam9317]

Hi there,

I am interested on starting to sell bitcoin on Local bitcoins! I just have a few quick questions, if you have already sold on this website or have experience with this website it would be brilliant if you could answer!

1. Is it easy to make money selling on Local Bitcoins

2. If you have a competitive price how often will you get trades?

3. What is the minimum amount of BTC you can have in your account to sell

Thankyou very much for your help

[ivroer]

It's not too difficult to make money selling on Local Bitcoins, it helps if you have some "float" to start with. BTC in your selling wallet and $ at an exchange.

As you confirm a local trade, execute a buy order on the exchange. Your risk is that the price could increase rapidly during your local transaction, on the flipside if you execute a buy as soon as you have a local order initiated the buyer could back out for some reason.

It helps if your price is competitive enough that you should in the "short list" of sellers in your area or for your money transfer type (if you're selling online, beware of scammers!)

But every market is probably a bit different, in my area there weren't that many sellers for a long time so it wasn't difficult to make sales. Usually I had most sales after mainstream media mentioned Bitcoin, or as the price was on the up...

Don't sell yourself too short on margin, start off "in the middle" somewhere and be prepared to wait awhile. Keep track of your fees (e.g. escrow, transaction, other) and your gains in dollars and bitcoin. e.g. use a spreadsheet or something like that.

Minimum amount, it used to be 1 BTC if you want to do online deals - it's since reduced to 0.5 BTC. I don't think you need a minimum if you're doing cash (face to face) deals, someone else might be able to clarify that.

Final advice, be honest but be wary of people, there are plenty of bad actors out there... and also be prompt with your communications, grow your good feedback and a happy customer is one that isn't waiting to hear back from you. But if you have a bad feeling about something with online transactions, don't rush with releasing an escrow. Stop and think about it, don't be afraid to ask Local Bitcoin support either by their support request form or hop onto the IRC chat. Remember bitcoin transactions are irreversible, but fiat controlled by banks often can be reversed.

[adam9317]

Ok. Thanks for your reply. I just have 1 key question

Say you buy your 1st bitcoin off bitstamp for 650usd. You then go and list it on localbitcoin, but the going price is now 600usd. So you sell it on localbitcoin for 600 and then immediatley go to bitstamp and buy another btc for say 580. You then put it onto localbitcoin but the going rate is 550.  So you sell it for that and then buy more on bitstamp

If this was to happen I think you would lose money (?). Is this correct or is there a way around this?

Many thanks

[adam9317]

Bump!

[ivroer]

Ok. Thanks for your reply. I just have 1 key question

Say you buy your 1st bitcoin off bitstamp for 650usd. You then go and list it on localbitcoin, but the going price is now 600usd. So you sell it on localbitcoin for 600 and then immediatley go to bitstamp and buy another btc for say 580. You then put it onto localbitcoin but the going rate is 550.  So you sell it for that and then buy more on bitstamp

If this was to happen I think you would lose money (?). Is this correct or is there a way around this?

Many thanks

I would hold off until you can make a profitable trade, unless you're going to write up your loss as "trust building" for feedback.

E.g. if you have already got 1 BTC which cost US$650 then use a localbitcoin price equation of something like max(665,bitstampusd_ask*1.05) and just wait. The *1.05 part is adding a 5% margin to the current ask price on bitstamp, you can set this to whatever you like. You make your own equation based on multiple price calculations see: https://localbitcoins.com/guides/equation-howto

Put US$650 (or more) into your bitstamp account and have it ready to purchase more when you get a trade. Never sell at a loss unless you're exiting Bitcoin forever never to return.

Your risk is that you might end up holding onto bitcoin for awhile. Most sellers don't mind this as they believe the price will continue to rise.

[adam9317]

Ok. Thanks for your reply. I just have 1 key question

Say you buy your 1st bitcoin off bitstamp for 650usd. You then go and list it on localbitcoin, but the going price is now 600usd. So you sell it on localbitcoin for 600 and then immediatley go to bitstamp and buy another btc for say 580. You then put it onto localbitcoin but the going rate is 550.  So you sell it for that and then buy more on bitstamp

If this was to happen I think you would lose money (?). Is this correct or is there a way around this?

Many thanks

I would hold off until you can make a profitable trade, unless you're going to write up your loss as "trust building" for feedback.

E.g. if you have already got 1 BTC which cost US$650 then use a localbitcoin price equation of something like max(665,bitstampusd_ask*1.05) and just wait. The *1.05 part is adding a 5% margin to the current ask price on bitstamp, you can set this to whatever you like. You make your own equation based on multiple price calculations see: https://localbitcoins.com/guides/equation-howto

Put US$650 (or more) into your bitstamp account and have it ready to purchase more when you get a trade. Never sell at a loss unless you're exiting Bitcoin forever never to return.

Your risk is that you might end up holding onto bitcoin for awhile. Most sellers don't mind this as they believe the price will continue to rise.

Thanks for your help mate, your assistance has been invaluable.

If you have any other tips for selling on local bitcoin would you either post it here or PM me

Thank you

[ZooKeeper74]

You need at least 50 feedbacks and selling no higher than Gox price to get my business,lol

Im sure most traders feel the same/